Schools

Fort Morgan schools applying for $35 million BEST grant

State funding would be used for new middle school

Fort Morgan's Board of Education approved Wednesday going after a $35 million state grant that could help finance a new middle school.

If a Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant is approved, a bond election would ask voters in the local school district for about $11 million in a bond election that would be held in November.

However, a BEST committee that meets in May would have to approve the grant application before a bond election would be held.

The district accountability committee has been working on a long-range facilities plan with Wold Architects of Denver, and planning for the middle school is part of the long-range package and will not cost any extra, said Ron Echols, superintendent of schools, at a special school board meeting Wednesday.

The only other item on Wednesday's agenda was an executive session on personnel matters, with no action reported.

If approved, a bond for $11 million would raise mill levies about 3.37 mills; the current bond mill levy is 9, said Mike Lee, chief financial officer for the district.

Debt service for the bond would be about $670,000 per year.

The district has a bonding capacity of about $24 million; current assessed valuation is about $200,389,000.

A house with a market value of $100,000 would have its property taxes go up about $26 a year if a bond election for $11 million passed, Lee said.

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District officials recommended raising the local share of the cost from 25 to 30 percent, figuring that would increase the chances of getting the BEST committee to go for the plan. That brought the local share to $11 million.

The committee meets in May, taking presentations from applying school districts, and draws up a short list shortly after that.

A final decision would probably come about a month later.

If the BEST committee approves Fort Morgan's application and the bond election fails, the committee would pass over Fort Morgan and move to the next project on the list.

"I think it's worth going after," said Damon Mussman, president of the school board. "The worst they can say is 'no.' We'll never know if we don't try."

If the district does not try for such a grant now, the window of opportunity looks likely to close, said board member Dr. George Saiter.

There are indications that there will be no big BEST grants after this year, Echols said.

The BEST grant request would lock in the cost and the square footage -- 123,540. Other details such as location would be left open.

The district has 113 acres south of Legion Field that is more than adequate to build a new middle school and could either use that or trade it for other property, board members and Echols said.

If the land south of Legion is used, it would have to be annexed into the city, and power and water lines would have to be installed, they noted.

A drawback to that location is that it is south of the BNSF railroad tracks, creating potential problems in case of an emergency if a train is blocking railroad crossings.

"One thing about there," Saiter said, "we wouldn't be hemmed in in terms of what we might want to add to it."

The building would be designed to accommodate grades 6-8, which would bring Fort Morgan in line with what many districts around the state do in terms of grade alignments.

Baker Central School, currently grades 5 and 6, could be converted to a neighborhood elementary school, it was indicated at the meeting.

Nothing has been decided on what would be done with the existing middle school building.

The Brush school district closed Central School in 1997; the building sits empty, although a committee is trying to find a use for it.

Fort Morgan has been approved for a BEST grant of nearly $1 million to replace boilers at Fort Morgan High School.

Weldon Valley used three BEST grants and local funds in recent years to build a new high school and junior high wing, demolish and replace an elementary school wing and remodel the historic core building.

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